Thursday, February 27, 2014

Why I Quit and Why I'm Back

Look what the bantha dragged in.Hello Kaliyo. Been causing any trouble while I was away?As if I need your permission. Where ya been, agent? Been boring around here without you.I decided to see the sights. Take some time off. Become normal.So, why are you back then?Kaliyo, I abhor normality.

Well fuck all, look who's back. I know that I've had a love/hate relationship with this game. Well, sometimes it's seemed like a hate/torture relationship. And I think my wild swings on SWTOR are primarily chalked up to my intense fanboyish love of this game in pre-release and the early days. And ... to be honest ... the soul-crushing decline of the game in the following months. So many of my friends abandoned SWTOR, my guild imploded, the community dried up (a bit). It turned me fanatical and bitter all at the same time. Constantly justifying my love/hatred for this game. And in the end it just go so damn tiresome. My attention drifted to other games; WoW, World of Warplanes, hell even MechWarrior Online (what a shitshow that was).

And in the back of my head, SWTOR kept sitting. Patiently.

After the final disappointment of the Starfighter PVP expansion, it seemed the last straw, really. The one great hope I had for reigniting this massive fanboyism for SWTOR had been so cruelly snuffed out. So I went away.

And some funny stuff happened.

As you may or may not know, I raid in WoW. We're not particularly successful at the moment (13/14 in Siege of Orgrimmar) but hey. We've rebuilt the team a few times, lost some folks. And while progressing through this latest raid, I'd hear folks on Vent saying, "Oh wow, the storytelling in this raid is just fantastic."

And I'd snort. WoW's best "storytelling" is about as cogent and fascinating as watching paint dry. SWTOR had infinitely better storylines, cohesive and alive. They tell a unified story in a universe that makes sense.

And I'd hear folks say that the newest expansion is going to be soooo immersive. They'll have garrisons and crafting from the bank and followers!

And I'd giggle because SWTOR has those too. Garrisons; your ship. Crafting from the bank? Yessir. Hell, even RIFT had that one. Followers? Sounds like companions to me. You can even send them out on missions, just like SWTOR.

And slowly, slowly it started to dawn on me. Fuck, I missed SWTOR. I missed the leisurely appeal to it, the lack of drive to hit endgame as soon as possible to start 'the real game.' The real game is 1-55 for SWTOR. Everything else is icing on the cake. A well-told, beautifully crafted, lovely little MMO. Raiding? Sure, it's cool. My favorite raid instance of all time is Ulduar. You know why? Story. You know what my second is? Eternity Vault. Because of story. And the second to last fight against all the council guys ... that's sorta bad ass. But raiding isn't the end-all, be-all of SWTOR. It's just the carrot at the end of the journey. And hell, you don't even have to take a bite if you don't want!

So I'm back now and I'm really taking my time. Playing on my own schedule and finally ... finally REALLY learning ... to appreciate this game. It's a great feeling.

Ulduar was fabulous, wasn't it? And while I still, deep in my heart of hearts, miss the camaraderie with my WoW guild, my 10-day free trial of WoW was enough to convince me that MoP just wasn't something I wanted to experience . . . especially after the freedom of choices in SWTOR. So while I'm not really playing SWTOR, either, atm (face it--being an English teacher is very time-consuming--I have to limit myself to half-hour forays into World of Tanks), I find I have almost no temptation to return to WoW, either.

Glad you're enjoying yourself again! Maybe when summer vacation comes, I'll have the time to update all the patches I've missed and go run around on my younger agent.

Thanks! It feels good to be back. I love SWTOR for different reasons than I love WoW ... SWTOR has better story and RPG-ness, WoW has better endgame and combat feel. Mists of Pandaria was, in my estimation, a true return to form for WoW, though. It's been an incredibly engaging experience and I highly recommend that you give the 85-90 stuff a shot if you can. It's grindy as hell (sometimes) but I think the payoff is worth it.

Odd note: I hate dailies in WoW. I can't get enough of the bounty hunter dailies in SWTOR. #confused